China has built a pervasive goods trade imbalance with the United States over the past couple of decades. This has hollowed out the American economy and led to a rise in deaths of despair. President Trump vowed to take China on over international trade and has waged a bruising trade war with China over the past couple of years.
In January China signed a phase one deal with the United States in part because they were losing the trade war badly. In 2019 around half of the hog herd in China died due to African Swine Fever. As ASF spread pork prices doubled, forcing China to have a tight monetary policy to keep inflation under control and forcing them to drop tariffs on United States pork exports.
